


Fleckman's Drug Store

by Brumeier



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1930s, Candy, Comfort Food, Drugstore, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:53:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29766138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: Fleckman's is a favorite neighborhood shop, and the first place Steve wants to go when he gets a little money in his pocket.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 16
Collections: What If? AU Challenge





	Fleckman's Drug Store

**Author's Note:**

> **Written for:**
> 
> whatif_au: coffee shop & all variants  
> ficlet_zone: Eureka episode titles - Just Another Day

**Brooklyn, 1930s**

It was a warm Saturday afternoon, Steve had a pocket full of money – he’d been collecting bottles all month – and there was only one place he wanted to be: Fleckman’s Drug Store, with his best pal by his side.

“You should save it,” Bucky protested. “For medicine or art paper or something.”

“Don’t be a pill,” Steve replied. “I just wanna have a little fun.”

Bottle money was for knocking around. Steve had picked up a real paying job, drawing up posters for Mr. Abernathy to hang up in the windows at the hardware store. Still life drawings were easy to do, as long as Steve had a reference, and he got paid ten cents per poster. That money he responsibly put away.

Fleckman’s was busy on a Saturday, and they were lucky to get seats at the soda fountain. Four Eyes Franks was pouring drinks and fixing sundaes, white cap on his head and an apron tied around his waist.

“Be right with you boys,” Four Eyes said. 

He was older than Steve and Bucky by about five or six years, and solidly built. Rumor had it he lifted weights because he’d been skinny like Steve in high school and got picked on, especially because of the coke-bottle glasses he had to wear.

“Ice cream?” Bucky asked, studying the menu on the wall.

“Egg cream.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “That’s all you ever want. You know there’s other things, right?”

“Best egg creams in the five boroughs,” Four Eyes said. “The usual?”

Steve slid his fifteen cents across the counter. “You bet.”

“You need to broaden your horizons, Stevie,” Bucky said.

“I’ll share my sundae with you, Bucky,” Susie Grant offered. She was sitting on Bucky’s other side and batted her eyelashes at him. She was only ten years old.

“Nah, I’m okay. Thanks.”

Girls of all ages flocked to Bucky. It was annoying sometimes, but Steve was used to it. Bucky was a good-looking guy, with his dark hair and blue, blue eyes, and he was a healthy guy. Girls tended to overlook Steve, who was skinny and wheezy.

“Stevie Rogers, is that you?”

Bucky nudged Steve, who turned on his stool. The upside of going to Fleckman’s was seeing people from around the neighborhood. Sometimes that was the downside, too.

“Hi, Mrs. Paterno.”

“I heard you were bedridden.”

“Obviously he’s not,” Bucky said, and Mrs. Paterno gave him a narrow-eyed look of disapproval.

“I had pneumonia a couple months ago,” Steve said. “But I’m okay now.”

“Send my regards to your mother,” Mrs. Paterno told Steve. “Tell her we miss her on canasta night.”

“I will.” Steve watched her leave. “You should be nicer, Buck.”

Bucky snorted. “She can kiss off.”

Steve didn’t disagree. Mrs. Paterno was a notorious busy-body, and if she saw a kid doing something they shouldn’t, she’d snitch on them to their folks. She was dour and disapproving and had a glare that could shrivel a guy’s manhood. But Steve had been taught to be respectful of his elders, even when they didn’t deserve it.

“Here you go, boys.” Four Eyes set the glass on the counter and popped two straws in it. 

If there was anything better than an egg cream, Steve didn’t want to know it. Four Eyes always put in extra syrup for him, so the chocolate flavor was even stronger. As long as he could get an egg cream, Steve figured he could survive the Depression well enough.

In between sucks on the straw, Steve turned to people watch. He knew everyone in the drug store: Mr. Nucci and Mr. Giuliano, who always sat at the little table by the front window playing checkers; Ms. Fineman, young and pretty but never out without her stern-looking mother; Nonna Rose, who could sometimes tell people’s futures because she had The Sight; a bunch of kids from the neighborhood just killing time till there was something more fun to do.

Mr. Fleckman was selling tablets, powders, and bottles of patent medicine at the back of the store, all of which were stored in the glass cabinets behind the counter. That’s where Steve got his asthma cigarettes and liquid analgesic, and his mother’s Milk of Magnesia tablets. And of course the VapoRub that Sarah Rogers used as a cure for almost everything.

“Hey, Double B!”

Tony Stark wedged himself between Steve and Bucky, clapping Bucky on the shoulder. His girlfriend, Ramona, stood behind him looking bored. Steve frowned.

Tony didn’t live in the neighborhood. He and his rich family lived in Manhattan in a swanky townhouse, and Tony went to one of those fancy schools where all the guys wore matching jackets. He’d been hanging around all summer because of Ramona. Steve had no idea how they’d met, and he didn’t care. Tony was kind of a jerk.

“What’s the good word?” Bucky asked, doing a complicated handshake with Tony. He looked past him to Ramona. “Hey, toots. Still with this joker?”

“For now,” Ramona replied. “Come on, Tony. I want to look at barrettes.”

Tony knocked against Steve, almost tipping him off the stool. “Be cool, baby. Barnes, you comin’ out for the stickball tourney tomorrow?”

“Maybe. Won’t be till after church, or my mom will have a cow.” Bucky peered around Tony. “Stevie? You gonna cheer me on?”

“Don’t I always?”

Steve would love to play, but no-one wanted a wheezy asthmatic on their team. Sometimes he and Bucky played, just the two of them, and Bucky said he was pretty good.

“Let’s go,” Ramona said, tugging on Tony’s arm.

“I better see you tomorrow,” Tony said, slapping Bucky on the back. “You and you’re cheering section.”

He let Ramona drag him off to look at the barrettes, which were kept in a glass case on the other side of the drug store. Mrs. Fleckman, just as skinny and tall as her husband, was on hand to open the cases and pull things out for people to look at. There were hair combs and ribbons, fancy stationery and pens, and trinkets to give as gifts.

“I don’t know why you like that guy,” Steve complained.

Bucky shrugged. “He’s not so bad. He doesn’t get along with his old man, I think that’s why he comes out here so much, out of spite. It’s sure not because Ramona’s a prize.”

“He’s arrogant.”

“So are you,” Bucky shot back. He pushed the glass with the last bits of egg cream at Steve. “Finish up and let’s go. Too nice to be inside.”

Steve chased the last drops of egg cream around the glass with his straw, then wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.

“Real classy,” Bucky said with a grin. “You’re no prize, either.”

“Best you’ll ever get.” Steve punched Bucky in the arm.

Truth was, Steve was lucky to have a guy like Bucky Barnes as his best friend. He didn’t mind when Steve couldn’t go out because he was sick, which was a lot, and he always backed Steve up when some guy was being a jerk and needed to be taught a lesson. If Bucky had been a girl, Steve might’ve been a little bit in love with him.

Before they left, Steve insisted on perusing the glass canisters of penny candy. If they were going to be walking around looking for something to do, they may as well do it with provisions.

He picked out some chocolate drops, Red Hots, licorice whips, and a jawbreaker for each of them. The jawbreakers were the best value, because they’d last a good long time.

“Come on, punk.” Bucky slung his arm around Steve’s neck. “Let’s see what kind of trouble we can get into today.”

They walked out of Fleckman’s and into the sunshine, and Steve already couldn’t wait till he had the money to come back for another egg cream.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** So, Fleckman’s has shown up in several of my MCU fics, usually when I’m writing a flashback. Where else is Steve going to get the egg creams I insist he loves to consume? LOL! Back in the day, drug stores often had soda fountains and even lunch counters and sold a variety of items in addition to medications. A place like that seemed like it would be a popular neighborhood hangout and, since Fleckman’s isn’t a chain (because I made it up) it seemed perfect for this challenge.
> 
> Since this could be considered pre-canon for Steve and Bucky, which isn’t technically an AU, I tossed Tony into the mix. Voila! AU!


End file.
